Digital transformation of the seafood industry: Replicate good practices

This initiative comes from Phuoc Tinh commune, Long Dien district (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) - a commune specializing in fisheries, with many fishing vessels operating in the open sea. Phuoc Tinh has digitized management and information by establishing the Zalo group with nearly 300 fishing boat owners in the area.

Mr. Phan Thach, Chairman of Phuoc Tinh Commune People's Committee, excitedly shared: "For a long time, fishermen who go to sea to catch fish often only take out their notebooks to write "fishing memoirs" in their free time or before returning to shore as prescribed. Therefore, in every breakfast and coffee with fishermen held on the weekend, we will integrate the propaganda of electronic diary keeping to help people understand more and apply it conveniently and effectively."

According to Mr. Thach, the locality determines this is a "war" on digital transformation, requesting the Management Board of fishing ports to support advocacy propaganda more widely and guide fishermen to apply effectively. Efficient in logging, logging, connecting, and monitoring journeys...

Appreciating the initiative of Phuoc Tinh commune to pioneer digitizing management work, Mr. Le Tong Van, Director of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provincial Fisheries Branch, said: "This is a good way of doing things for the commune. Phuoc Tinh quickly spread throughout the province.

Thanks to that, from the beginning of the year until now, the province has effectively prevented the situation of fishing vessels violating fishing in foreign waters, with no incidents occurring. Violations of losing connection to journey monitors also decreased by more than 65%."

According to Mr. Van, when detecting any fishing vessel crossing the fishing boundary through foreign waters or losing connection to the journey, having difficulties or incidents while sailing, the group will immediately notify each other to fix the problem promptly. At the same time, there will be additional participation from district and provincial leaders, Fisheries Sub-department, border guard stations, police... From there, the management of fishing vessels according to IUU regulations, propaganda information, and remedies will be implemented. Troubleshooting and handling violations are transparent, convenient, and faster than before.

In Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, digital transformation in the fisheries industry is also applied at fishing ports and authorities in monitoring output and tracing the origin of exploited seafood, serving export work. All data, information, fishing vessel records, and handling of violations are updated to the national fisheries data system (VNFishbase). This is one of the requests of the European Inspection Group requests to remove the IUU "yellow card".

Currently, Ba Ria-Vung Tau is promoting the digital transformation program, so equipping people and fishermen with knowledge and tools to be ready to participate in the province's digital transformation process is very practical. Ba Ria-Vung Tau also sets the goal that every household has fiber optic Internet cable, 100% of people have smart devices, 50% of people, and 100% of businesses have electronic payment accounts and digital signatures.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, the province has recently supported many businesses in deploying a traceability system using QR code bright electronic stamps to make information about the origin of goods transparent and meet customers' needs. Meet all strict requirements of export markets.

Talking to Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper, Mrs. Pham Thi Na, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, said: "The province is encouraging the conversion of ineffective trawl fishing vessels to other types of fishing trawlers, gillnets, traps; At the same time, we mobilize fishermen to actively apply digital transformation in production and fishing activities to improve the efficiency of information and timely communication when at shore as well as at sea; Digital transformation will help people share work and exchange experiences anywhere, anytime very conveniently."

Ba Ria-Vung Tau province currently has 7 businesses, 2 cooperatives in fisheries exploitation, and 334 cooperative groups that unite in fishing at sea. The average fishing output is about 300,000 tons/year. Currently, the total number of fishing vessels registered for management of the province is over 4,600, of which over 2,700 vessels exploit offshore areas, accounting for 59%. Most fishing vessels are synchronously equipped with advanced and modern machinery such as fish finders, locators, depth gauges, and long-range radios...

To contribute to digital transformation, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has coordinated with relevant units to bring 100% of the information and images of the province's OCOP products to the e-commerce platform, generating over 25,000 digital data accounts and e-commerce stores.